“Miami fears the fix is in. Local Democrats increasingly believe that the Democratic National Convention in 2020 will be sited in Milwaukee, a conclusion that’s led Florida politicians, donors and insiders to mount a final lobbying blitz to turn the tide,” Politico reports.

“The last-ditch effort began in earnest in recent days as speculation mounted that Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez would pick Milwaukee, where he has both family ties and the pressure of the Democratic governors of Wisconsin and Illinois weighing on him to go with a Midwestern location.”

Playbook: “Democrats involved in the bids believe an announcement could come as soon as next week.”

Max Boot: “As I’ve traveled around, speaking about my book on how extremists hijacked the Republican Party, I have been hearing from Democrats who are worried that the same thing is happening to their party. They have good cause for concern. The Democrats, to be sure, are not nearly as far-left as Republicans are far-right. But they are moving to the left, with the number of Democrats who describe themselves as liberal having doubled from 25 percent in 1994 to 51 percent in 2018.”

“There is nothing wrong with being liberal — I’m a classical liberal myself — but there is an uber-progressive wing in the Democratic Party that is becoming more vocal and influential. It is, in many ways, the mirror image of the far-right populists who have taken over the GOP.”

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean “is set to return to prominence as head of a new operation that Democrats hope puts them back on par with Republicans in the never-ending race to use voter data to drive Americans to the polls,” the AP reports.

“Dean confirmed that he’s signed on to lead a planned data exchange hammered out by DNC officials, state party leaders and Democratic consultants. The agreement still requires the expected approval from state party leaders gathering Wednesday in Washington, but it would end more than 18 months of internal party wrangling that has dogged DNC Chairman Tom Perez amid fights over money and control.”

“The arrangement would allow the national party, state parties and independent political action groups on the left to share voter data in real time during campaigns.”

“Democrats are flirting with socialism in ways they carefully and clearly ran away from in the past, handing President Trump a new way to unify Republicans — and to club his opponents,” Axios reports.

“It started with Democrats sitting silently as he railed against socialism in his State of the Union speech. It intensified with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s release of a Green New Deal, a vague policy manifesto loaded with big-government policies.”

“The surge is unlikely to abate: Young, Twitter- and social-savvy Democrats favor socialism over capitalism. And no Democrat in politics today plays the social media game with more savvy than AOC.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution: “She told supporters she was ‘terrified’ of squandering the chance to rebut Donald Trump’s address, like so many from both parties had done before, with a miscue that ruins the opportunity… What followed was a 10-minute speech Tuesday that combined tales of her upbringing in Mississippi, the merits of bipartisanship in Georgia and biting criticism of Trump and Republican policies.”

“And she steered clear of the gaffes or awkwardness that tripped up so many of her predecessors — like Marco Rubio’s gulping of water, or Joe Kennedy’s too-glistening lips — and kept the focus instead on her competing political vision.”

“That meant her critics seized on the substance of her message rather than the optics around it.”

The Atlantic: “In a brief speech lauded by Democrats, Abrams succeeded in elevating an event that is often awkward and anticlimactic by nature.”

Playbook: “Our sources tell us Milwaukee is the odds-on favorite for the 2020 Democratic National Convention. (John Bresnahan’s sources tell him this too.) Houston and Miami are also still in the hunt, and all three cities have been asked to move forward with a master contract. Officials are pushing ahead to secure convention hotel rates, and representatives from all three cities were in D.C. last week delivering their final pitches.”

“Democrats need to win Wisconsin in 2020. The city has a new arena that has a lot of open space around it that could add some flexibility for planning and events.”

Washington Post: “Sen. Kamala Harris is raising the possibility of eliminating private health insurance. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other prominent Democrats are floating new and far-reaching plans to tax the wealthy. In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam voiced support for state legislation that would reduce restrictions on late-term abortions… Casting Democrats as a scary and radical force is giving a fractured Republican Party a common thrust at a time when Trump’s standing even within his own party has started to dip. And it is giving Democrats a bit of the heartburn that Republicans have been grappling with for more than two years.”

“Abortion, taxes and health care have long been among the most combustible political topics. But in the context of the energetic field of 2020 candidates and amid coarsening political rhetoric, they have taken on new gravity. The past few days offer a preview of the next two years, as Democrats argue that the country is yearning for policies previously believed to be too far left, and Republicans cast them as ‘radical zealots’ (Fox News host Laura Ingraham), ‘so radicalized’ (presidential son Eric Trump) and ‘the party of death’ (former House speaker Newt Gingrich).”

Gallup: “As the longest government shutdown in U.S. history came to an end, Gallup polling suggests that the Republican Party’s image has suffered more than the Democratic Party’s. The GOP’s favorability rating fell to 37% from 45% in September. At the same time, Americans’ favorable views of the Democratic Party remained stable at 45%.”

Gallup: “Significantly more U.S. adults continued to identify as political independents (42%) in 2018 than as either Democrats (30%) or Republicans (26%). At least four in 10 Americans have been political independents in seven of the past eight years, including a record-high 43% in 2014.”

“The DNC is close to finalizing a 2020 primary debate plan that would give lesser-known candidates a chance to share the same stage as the party’s front-runners, avoiding the two-tier ‘kiddie table’ approach that divided the Republican field in the last presidential campaign,” the Washington Post reports.

“The party’s proposed solution would allow for other factors beyond national polling, possibly including staffing, fundraising and number of office locations, to be considered in making a cutoff for debate participation.”

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) “blamed her defeat not on her own campaign, but on the Democratic Party for abandoning its moderate constituents,” Roll Call reports.

Said McCaskill: “This demand for purity, this looking down your nose at people who want to compromise, is a recipe for disaster for the Democrats. Will we ever get to a majority in the Senate again, much less to 60, if we do not have some moderates in our party?”

About Political Wire

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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